The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Beware of tax scams as tax season approaches

It will be time to file your income taxes soon, so that means scam artists are hard at work trying to get your money.

The IRS is seeing two new types of tax-related scams, one dealing with Social Security numbers and the other a phony tax bill:

• The SSN hustle. The latest twist includes scammers claiming to be able to suspend or cancel the victim’s Social Security number. It may be associated with the IRS impersonation scam. Con artists try to frighten people into returning “robocall” voicemails. They may mention overdue taxes in addition to threatening to cancel the person’s SSN.
• Fake tax agency. A letter threatens an IRS lien or levy, based on bogus delinquent taxes owed to a non-existent agency, the “Bureau of Tax Enforcement.” The lien notification scam also probably refers to the IRS to confuse potential victims into thinking the letter is from a real federal agency.

Court orders mortgage relief fraudsters to pay $18.5 million

A federal court ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission Monday in a case against the operators of a scheme that deceived financially distressed homeowners by falsely promising to make their mortgages more affordable. The defendants also charged consumers illegal advance fees and unlawfully told consumers not to pay their mortgages to or communicate with their lenders.

The case was filed by the FTC in January 2018, and the court issued a temporary restraining order against the company then.

In granting the FTC’s motion for summary judgment, the court found that the defendants’ practices violated the FTC Act and the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule.

Top consumer stories for 2019

As usual, most of the end-of-the-year, round-up articles are about national issues or corporations. If consumers are mentioned, it’s usually about how they’re responding to some corporation.

For the most part, it’s been a grim year for consumers. With the Trump administration that is so probusiness and anti-consumer, the not much is happening for consumers that's positive.

1. President Donald Trump is impeached.

We have a president who puts his personal interests above the public interest. He tried to bribe the Ukrainian president to get him to investigate a political rival. As a result, he’s been impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. This is incredible.

How a percentage of the American can support Trump is a great mystery to me. He and his administration announce anti-consumer proposals almost daily.

In addition, we have a president who lies. Since he was elected, Trump has told more than 15,000 false or misleading claims. In 2019, he’s said that the U.S. economy today is the best in history, he passed the biggest tax cut in history, the U.S. has lost money on trade deficits, article II of the Constitution lets him do whatever he wants, windmills cause cancer, and toilet flushes are up. All are untrue.

2. Consumer rights and programs are under continual attack from President Trump and his administration.

The Republican conservatives want to reduce the size of government and give corporations more power. Almost daily, we read about how the Trump administration has done it or is planning to do it. Some examples include:

• The Trump administration’s decision to roll back light bulb standards will cost consumers billions.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rule speeding up pork lines and reducing inspectors endangers the lives and safety of consumers and workers. 
• Corporations keep breaking the law due to declining federal prosecutions.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and seven states launch an “innovation network” that will approve new, risky financial products and protect them from enforcement.
• The CFPB fails consumers by not carrying out the payday lending rule.
• Fewer children’s products were recalled in 2018.
• Under Trump, enforcement of consumer financial laws drops sharply, especially in areas with the highest complaints.

The list goes on and on. Government regulations and programs help consumers. Reducing the size of government and slashing consumer regulations just helps corporations make more profits at the expense of consumers.

Tips for buying gift cards

Gift cards are a popular, convenient gift for the holidays. This holiday season, more than half of Americans plan to buy gift cards, according to the National Retail Federation. They’ll purchase an average of four gift cards worth about $49 each. Spending on gift cards is expected to reach $29.9 billion, up from last year’s $27.6 billion.

Although gift cards seem straightforward, it’s important that both the giver and the recipient read the details for each card to avoid problems, and to find out if additional requirements have been put on by the merchant or bank issuing the card, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Protections

Federal law provides protections for consumers who purchase gift cards, including store and restaurant gift cards, known as merchant cards. These cards can only be redeemed at the stores and restaurants that sell them. Bank gift cards – which carry the logo of a payment card network, for example, Visa or MasterCard – are also subject to federal law protections and can be used wherever the brand is accepted.

President Trump is impeached

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know I’m not a fan of the Trump administration. As it works to dismantle our government institutions and slash consumer and environmental protections, consumers are put in a worse position every day.

In my opinion, it’s a good thing that the U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump. The House centered it’s investigation on the Ukraine travesty of bribery and obstruction of Congress for withholding documents and witnesses during the investigations.

To me there could have been many more items on which Trump could be impeached. Abuses of power and putting personal interest above the public interest occur regularly in the Trump administration.

University of Phoenix settles with FTC for $191 million over deceptive ads

The University of Phoenix and its parent company, Apollo Education Group, will settle for a record $191 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that they used deceptive advertisements, which falsely described their relationships and job opportunities with companies such as AT&T, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Twitter, and The American Red Cross.

Under the settlement approved by the FTC, UOP will pay $50 million in cash as well as cancel $141 million in debts owed to the school by students who were harmed by the deceptive ads.

"This is the largest settlement the Commission has obtained in a case against a for-profit school,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Students making important decisions about their education need the facts, not fantasy job opportunities that do not exist."

Baby boomers spend time on holiday preparations and end-of-year reflections

Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting was flying high this week, with a short airline ride to enjoy the company of her grandkids. She sat for hours in stiff steel bleachers waiting for her granddaughters’ teams to compete in cheerleading, got manicures and pedicures, sampled Asian ice cream, baked cookies, strolled a craft fair, and witnessed the usual family feuds, which she didn’t take part in.  

Meanwhile, her baby boomer blogging friends spent time this week on end-of-year reflections and holiday preparations:

• Why manifesting stuff won’t make you happy.
• How “free trial offers” can turn bad and cost you money.
• How the size and style of the family Christmas tree changes over the years.
• How to make your own self-care toolkit for the holidays.
• What we can do to help ourselves live longer and feel better.
• What makes someone young and someone old is a state of mind.

This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #626. Click here to get the links to the articles. And, be sure and join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers enjoy sharing ideas with readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Watch out for scammers saying they’re from the FTC

Did you recently get an official letter from the Federal Trade Commission?

Be careful. Scammers have been faking official-looking FTC letterhead to write frightening messages to people, threatening them.

A Pennsylvania man received a letter saying his online and financial activities put him under suspicion of money laundering and terrorism. And, all his activities would “be under review.”

Use caution when donating to a charity on Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday, a day that follows Thanksgiving on Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, is designated for giving to charities and organizations.

It’s a good reminder that charitable organizations need funding as Americans are caught up in the frenzy of holiday spending. However, caution is needed so that your money goes to worthwhile charities.

Here are tips so that your Giving Tuesday donations go to effective organizations:

Trump administration’s decision to roll back light bulb standards will cost consumers billions

The Consumer Federation of America thinks the U.S. Department of Energy’s proposed determination that new lighting efficiency standards aren’t needed is wrong. The DOE’s justification for this rollback is riddled with factual errors and is based on seriously flawed assumptions and methodology, the CFA said.

The DOE’s decision to roll back money saving lighting requirements is based on analyzing only one single technology that is extremely and unjustifiably high in cost ($7/bulb), low in efficiency (only 34.5 lumens/watt), and has a short lifespan (1,000 hours), said Mel Hall-Crawford, CFA director of energy programs and special projects.

The best alternative available in the market is less than half the cost ($3/bulb), almost three times more efficient (88.9 lumens/watt), and lasts 15 times as long (15,000 hours).